Left: Rapper Tupac Shakur attends a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles, Aug. 15, 1996 (AP Photo/Frank Wiese). Right: Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis appears for his arraignment at the Regional Justice Center, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, in Las Vegas (Ethan Miller/Pool Photo via AP).
A judge has set a trial date for Duane “Keffe D” Davis to face murder charges alleging he killed renowned rapper Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas more than 20 years ago.
First reported by the Associated Press, Judge Carli Kierney set the trial date for June 3, 2024, in Nevada. Davis has pleaded not guilty and the former gang member remains in detention for now. Davis claims he has cancer and his attorneys have said they will attempt to have him freed before proceedings get underway next summer.
In a 2019 memoir, Davis, a native of Compton, California, claimed to have arranged the drive-by shooting that killed Shakur and has said publicly that he was promised immunity by prosecutors who interviewed him in 2010 about the murder of Shakur’s rival, Christopher Wallace, who also went by the monikers Biggie Smalls and Notorious B.I.G.
Davis also publicly took credit for wounding rapper Marion “Suge” Knight in the memoir. Knight is now serving time for a fatal 2015 hit and run. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison in October 2018.
Prosecutors have said that Davis’ nephew was in a fight with Shakur the night of the shooting. Davis was once the alleged leader of the Compton South Side Crips gang.
According to a copy of his grand jury indictment obtained by Law&Crime, prosecutors have accused Davis of murder with use of a deadly weapon with intent to promote further or assist criminal gang activity, a class A felony.
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